The artist was given a small studio in this garden and made a short album of drawings and calligraphy inspired by his surroundings. Each drawing had an accompanying poem and short description. This unified three of the most important forms of art in China, at the time: poetry, calligraphy, and painting. The garden was part of a temple in Suzhou, which was ancient even when Wen was working there. It still exists although it has been altered so much in the intervening years that it is hardly recognizable as the same place in Wen’s drawings.

I like the little details in this painting. I especially like the title. After all, what better place is there to go after an upsetting political defeat than a serene, tranquil garden full of beautiful flowers? I also like the way the trees in the background appear almost to be stippled. The technique of the painter is interesting to me and I like his style. The picture is very calming to me as a viewer. The thought of spending a day lounging around in my own private, walled-in garden is attractive. In fact, I can’t think of a better way to spend a warm summer day.

References:

https://classes.uaf.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_60839_1%26url%3d

References:

http://www.vmcaa.nl/cgi-bin/mk2/mk2_xml.pl?lay=dp_work_hdr.lay&cnti=10&cntf=13&srch=werken.xml:werk:gitaar2.gif:bestand:dp_work.lay

http://www.africaserver.nl/fahari/english/english_start.htm

http://www.africaserver.nl/virtual/index_uk.html

The first piece in the collection is called Office Stress which is a chalk drawing created by Kurt Wenner in 2007. Wenner is an American artist that has reached international fame with his chalk drawings. He uses pastel chalks that he creates himself using pure pigments and binder. Wenner was born in Ann Arbor Michigan and went to several different design schools before being hired by NASA. At NASA Wenner was a scientific illustrator and honed his drawing and perspective skills there. In 1982 he moved to Rome, Italy to study art full time and it was there that he began to create street drawings.

The work Office Stress fits into the theme of “Street Art” because it was created on the walkway before a large building. This drawing shows employees chained to their desks by the cords of their computers, and probably echoes the feelings of many 9-5ers. I love the creativity of the piece and the humor that it invokes.

In 2003 Wenner created a floor drawing for Schick, a leading sponsor of that year’s X-Games in Los Angeles. This particular piece was done inside on a tile floor. Although this piece is well done, it isn’t my favorite work. It doesn’t have many bright colors and it just doesn’t seem as exciting or fun to view as some of his other works.

The second artist in my series is Julian Beever. Beever is an English artist that primarily works in Europe, although he has done pavement drawings in the U.S., Argentina, Brazil, Australia, and Mexico. Beever’s works are usually quite lively and fascinating to look at. He uses a technique called anamorphosis that makes his drawings appear 3-D if seen from the right angle. I am a huge fan of all of his drawings and I appreciate how much work must go into the creation of each and every one.

Here is a Batman and Robin drawing that Julian Beever did. He is the person sitting on the ledge. This was drawn on a street in London on August 29, 2006.

Another work by Julian Beever is Politicians Meeting Their End. This was drawn outside The Bank of England and was commissioned by the BBC Channel 4’s Midnight Special for the night of Britain’s 1997 general election.

My third artist is the German street painter Edgar Mueller. He has travelled extensively around Europe doing street paintings and has recently begun making 3-D works like Wenner and Beever.  Originally Mueller copied classical art and as a teenager once won a street painting competition after reproducing a work by Caravaggio.

This is a work called Ice Age/The Crevasse created in August 2008 at the “Festival of World Culture” in Dun Laoghaire, Ireland. It took 5 days to complete and the finished work covered 250 square meters. I love the appearance of depth this drawing exudes as well as the way he so expertly shades the colors.

Here is a YouTube video that shows the creation of this work:

My final work by Mueller is called Lava Burst, which is my very favorite because it is so creative. It was painted in August 2008 at the International Competition of Streetpainters in Geldern, Germany.

References:

http://www.kurtwenner.com/

https://classes.uaf.edu/webapps/portal/frameset.jsp?tab_id=_2_1&url=%2fwebapps%2fblackboard%2fexecute%2flauncher%3ftype%3dCourse%26id%3d_60839_1%26url%3d

http://users.skynet.be/J.Beever/index.html

http://www.european-street-painting.com/

http://www.metanamorph.com/about.html

The Entertainer written by Scott Joplin in St. Louis in 1902 is one of my favorite pieces of ragtime. I remember back in elementary school kids playing it on the piano in the music teacher’s room, to show off their musical prowess. I was not one of those children. Nevertheless, I love the spunky happy feeling I get from this upbeat tune. It always makes me smile.

Ragtime was a precursor to Jazz music and one of the first musical forms to really bring African Americans to the forefront. Scott Joplin was the son of a slave from South Carolina. He grew up in Texas and although the family had no piano of their own, Scott’s mother was a cleaning lady and he would frequently play the piano in a house that she worked in. His talent caught the attention of a German immigrant musician named Julius Weiss, who became his teacher and taught him for free. Scott never forgot Weiss’s kindness and later in life sent him gifts of money.

Hoping to have a career in music, Scott traveled to Chicago in 1893 to play at the World’s Fair. Blacks were not allowed to be official performers but instead worked mostly in the food booths. However, he started his first band here and his compositions were popular with visitors to the fair. In 1899 he released The Maple Leaf Rag which was the first instrumental to sell over a million copies of sheet music. His popularity continued to grow and he was called the King of Ragtime.

In 1911 Joplin finished an opera called Treemonisha that is a great example of the struggle of African Americans at this time. The heroine, an 18 year old girl named Treemonisha, tries to raise her community out of ignorance and poverty through education. Joplin was writing this far before the Civil Rights Movement, but it can be seen as a precursor to that. Unfortunately such a topic was not favorable to the, mostly white, opera audience, and Joplin could not find anyone willing to publish the 200+ page musical that he spent years writing. He never got over the disappointment and his ability to play the piano deteriorated as his mind and body were ravaged by syphilis. He went insane and died in 1917 in a mental institution.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Joplin#Early_years

http://www.scottjoplin.org/biography.htm

This is my favorite painting by Monet, which he painted multiple times from various angles, using different color schemes. It is called Le Bassin aux nymphéas, harmonie verte” (translated as “Water-Lily Pond, Symphony in Green”) and was painted in 1899 in his own garden in Giverny, France. The work is now housed in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. One of my favorite qualities of this painting, and Impressionism in general, is the softness of the finished work. There are no hard angles and things come across slightly fuzzy and unfocused unless you view them from across the room. I particularly love the way you can tell what season and time of day it is from the colors that are used. Like many other Impressionists, Monet recreated certain paintings to represent them in different types of lighting. Here is another version of the Japanese bridge (there are 17 different paintings of this bridge in total) in colors that appear to be more fitting of autumn or at least the late afternoon. This was also painted in 1899 and is titled “Le Bassin des nymphéas” (Water-Lily Pond) and is on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Another characteristic of Impressionist painters that I love is the way they blend the colors together to make it look like everything is intertwined. The dabs of color and rough brushstrokes are made to be looked at as part of a whole and help to unify the work rather than have it be looked at in distinct parts. These paintings don’t depict one thing, they represent a multitude of events, emotions, and feelings. Interestingly, Monet suffered from cataracts and the colors in his paintings changed as his vision worsened. When his vision was the worst, his paintings take on a reddish hue, and when he successfully had the cataracts removed, his works became more bluish.

I think that Impressionism particularly contrasts with the Baroque style and its still life paintings, which obviously have no movement or expression. They frequently seem somewhat dark to me and used muted colors, which is the opposite of many Impressionist artists. Nor does the Impressionist style have the careful attention to detail that is so notable about Renaissance works, and they certainly are not religious in origin.

References:

http://www.intermonet.com/oeuvre/pontjapo.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Monet

http://giverny.org/monet/biograph/

This is a performance of Mozart’s 16th piano sonata in C, K 545 (1/2); 1st movement. It is a short piece and a typical performance of it is just under 15 minutes. Mozart himself said that it was “for beginners,” and I like the bouncy, almost happy feel of the melody. The piece has a nice fluency and clarity and shows off the skill of the musician, particularly the strength of the left hand.  I never managed to master the piano so I have great respect for anyone that can play it well.

The sonata has three movements (the video is only of the 1st); the first and last are in the key of C major and the middle secion is in G major.

 One of the most interesting things I found about this composition is that it was never published during Mozart’s lifetime. Beginning in 1784, Mozart kept a detailed log of all of his compositions, so it is known that this piece was composed in 1788 while Mozart was working in Vienna. For some reason, printed copies didn’t show up until 1805, although I do not know why there was such a delay.

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Sonata_No._16_(Mozart)

http://www.mozartproject.org/books/braunbeh.html

The painting Woman Peeling Apples was created by the Dutch painter Gerard Ter Borch in 1660. Most likely this piece was painted in the German region of Westphalia, and is now housed at the Art History Museum in Vienna. I like this piece because it shows a very ordinary person doing an everyday task, but the inclusion of the child at the woman’s side portrays an intimate family moment. Ter Borch was influenced by the rising merchant class in Europe that both bought his works and sat for them. He painted wealthy, upper class citizens, as can be inferred from the clothing his subjects are wearing (most notably the hat the little girl is wearing in this picture), but his subjects are clearly not nobility or members of any royal court.

References:

http://www.huntfor.com/absoluteig/borch.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerard_ter_Borch

I chose to post this statue, St. Mark, by Donatello because it is absolutely exquisite.  Donatello was working at the beginning of the Renaissance and many of his statutes foreshadowed artistic movements to come. The detail that went into St. Mark is incredible. You can actually see the veins on the saints left hand (the one holding the book) and he is striking a very natural pose. Every fold of his robe is evident and flawlessly carved. From the statue, you can tell that the saint is standing with one leg slightly bent and his upper body is slightly twisted. The naturalistic quality of the subject hints at humanism, in my mind. You can sense the disposition and intelligence of the saint, and the realism with which he is portrayed is astounding.